Finally, another dictatorial regim comes to and end. Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has resigned. He has done it to avoid the impending impeachment motion. But, as he said in his speach, he's doing it to keep the nation's interests.
.............................
A Brief Bio of General's Rule: (Sourced from agencies)
Musharraf was born in Delhi, in August 1943. During the partition of India, his family emigrated to Pakistan.
1964: Musharraf started a career with the Pakistan Army.
1998: Became Pakistan's powerful Army Chief.
1999: Kargil war. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ordered the withdrawal of insurgent troops from Indian territories. Tensions mounted between Musharraf and Nawaz Sharif over the decision. Sharif tried to fire Musharraf. In October, Musharraf overthrew the elected Sharif Government and seized the power in a bloodless military coup. World Communities condemned the coup. However the reactions were not much serious considering the fact that democracy rarely prevailed in Pakistan.
July 2001: In the first summit meeting in Agra, India, Musharraf and the then Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee failed to make any headway on the Kashmir issue. Musharraf's storming out of India became a big news.
Septemner 11 2001: This day marked a defining moment in Musharraf's political career. His support to Washington in the plans to attack Afghanistan became crucial. Pakistan became an ally in the US led "War on Terror", in return, US promised more than $1bn in aid to Pakistan. Musharraf not only backed the American military action in Afghanistha, but also arrested more than 500 al-Qaida suspects in its own territory. This move made him wisely unpopular in his own country.
Since his precarious alliance with Washington, Musharraf has waged a campaign against Islamic extremists, banning several militant groups - a stance that has made him many enemies at home.
December 2001: Terrorists attacked the Indian parliament. India blamed the attack on Pakistan backed Kashmiri militants, Pakistan categorically denied the charge.
2002: Tensions continued between India and Pakistan. Steady shelling was reported accross the LOC.
India continued to accuse Pakistan of backing Islamic militant groups and supporting insurgency in Jammu and kashmir. Musharraf continued to deny the charge. In a televised speech to the nation at the peak of the crisis, Musharraf vowed not to initiate war with India, but continued to test medium and a short-range ballistic missiles - capable of carrying conventional and nuclear warheads.
late 2002: General elections were held in Pakistan and Parliament was reconvened, but Musharraf remained the most powerful figure in Pakistan, though he handed over day-to-day handling of the country to a prime minister, a political ally. But the business in parliament was in deadlock for months as secular and religious opposition parties refused to accept a raft of constitutional amendments Musharraf had pushed through without parliamentary approval.
The amendments, known as the Legal Framework Order (LFO), gave the general the power to sack the prime minister, dissolve parliament and also recognise him as both head of the army and head of state.
December 2003: as part of a deal to end the stand-off, Gen Musharraf said he would step down as military head of the country by January 2005 - a pledge he did not fulfil.
Musharraf survived two assassination attempts
early 2004: Since peace talks began with India, tensions have reduced between the two countries.
March 2004: The hunt for al Qaida militants in the southern Waziristan tribal area in March 2004 by the Pakistani army - the largest since Musharraf threw his support behind the US war on terror - disenchanted many in Pakistan an Islamic country of 150 (m) million people. Pakistani troops attacked hundreds of possible al-Qaida suspects and tribesmen holed up in heavily fortified mud fortresses in South Waziristan - a forbidding tribal region near the border with Afghanistan.
April 2004: A veneer of democracy was given to Musharraf's rule, when he won a five-year presidential mandate in a highly controversial referendum, in which he was the only candidate.
October 2004: areas of Pakistan-administered Kashmir were struck by a massive earthquake that killed tens of thousands of people. Musharraf visited people left homeless in the disaster.
July 2005: The suicide bombings in London, investigations revealed that the bombers had visited religious schools in Pakistan.
March 2006 : US President George Bush visited the country. Days of anti US Protests erupted across Pakistan with crowds of thousands burning US flags and chanting death to America.
In 2006: Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikar Choudhari embarrassed the government with a ruling that blocked plans to privatise a huge state-run steel company.
July 2007: shots were fired after Musharraf's plane took off from a military base in what one official described as a failed assassination attempt. Pakistani army investigators were busy at work on a rooftop in Rawalpindi where three officials told AP that two anti-aircraft guns and a light machine gun were found.
Musharraf's move to suspend Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry as chief justice of the Supreme Court, triggered a row over the independence of the judiciary and accusations of political meddling, and proved to be an ill-judged move. Chaudhry irked the government in several high-profile cases. He had pressed the government hard to provide information on the whereabouts of dozens of people said by relatives to be secretly held by Pakistani intelligence agencies.
Chaudhry's suspension provoked a series of demonstrations across Pakistan and Musharraf's worst political crisis since he seized power in 1999.
October 2007: Musharraf was re-elected by Parliament, but his confirmation was held up by the Supreme Court following complaints that a military man could not constitutionally serve as an elected head-of-state.
November 2007: Musharraf reacted by proclaiming a state of emergency on November 3, sacking the chief justice and other independent judges and replacing them with his appointees. The reconstituted top court then approved his election.
Musharraf said confidence in his government would soon return.
Musharraf eventually stepped down from his powerful post as Pakistan's military commander in November, a day before he was to be sworn in as a civilian president as part of his long-delayed pledge not to hold both jobs. During a change of command in the garrison town of Rawalpindi near the capital, Islamabad, Musharraf relinquished his post by handing over his ceremonial baton to his successor, General Ashfaq Kayani. Musharraf's retirement from the military was a key opposition demand. He had promised to give up his army role at the end of 2004 but reneged on that pledge, saying the country still needed strong leadership in the face of Islamic extremism.
Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif returned from exile to stand in the poll.
December 2007: Benazir Bhutto was assassinated at an election campaign. Musharraf furiously ejected intelligence services complicity and was at pains to defend what security had been in place at the rally.
February 2008: Musharraf's rivals Asif Ali Zardari and ex-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif won the parliamentary elections and had since sought his ouster.
..............................................
In his fairwell speech to the nation, Musharraf tried his best to defend his tenure and refuted criticism. At the End, an emotional Musharraf said that he leaves office knowing whatever he has done "was for the people and for the country." "I leave my future in the hand of nation and the people. Let them be the judge and let them do justice,"
He said his fate was in the hands of the Pakistani people. And well, it's going to be interesting to see in whose hands Pakistan's fate is to go..
I hope it doesn't happen that we find the coming rulers much more difficult to handle...
Posts
